The Inside Story
Day of Reckoning

Von Moltke and his group made it up the hill. There were all the others. For a moment von Moltke didn't care what the others were doing, he sought out Churchill. David all of the sudden had questions. He hoped Leon had the answers. David found Leon and dragged him away. "What is it David?"

"What did you decide to do?"

"Well,"

"The inside isn't it?"

"Yeah. We destroy the operations center, cause a large enough blast to rip into the several worlds and get home."

"You know and I know that what you're planning won't work, we'll lose them before we get in."

"Says who? Getting in might be difficult, but they can make it."

"So you'll sacrifice them again just to get home?"

"No, David, I wouldn't dream of it."

"Face it, our best option is to pound him into submission from the outside. We've got the power to do it."

"No, we don't. Pounding at his exterior would stalemate things at best. We're playing for too much, and they are too. I wouldn't risk them if I didn't have to. My plan offers our best chance."

"So what of Seahorse, Salamander, Sailor Mercury, Piccolo, Spiderman. Did they not fall victim to one of your plans?"

"Look, I can't claim perfection. Who can? Mistakes in tactics were made, but the strategy was sound."

"Tactics! You blame tactics! So now you blame me!"

"Did you have control of them? No. Did you know Megatron would hide in his base until the last moment? No. Stop kicking me and stop kicking yourself. We've lived by luck, it only reasons to lose by luck as well."

"You don't understand. Unlike you, I can't just look sharp and send others to do the dirty work. I can't hide behind Sailor Jupiter and draw little plans of how Piccolo and Matt can do my dirty work. I won't send them into a death trap. Call off your plan."

"Look do you know what we're doing here? Do you why you're here?"

"Yes, to get these characters home in one piece."

"Yes, but you have yet to see things as they are. Why do they carry out these plans? What makes Piccolo throw himself in front of T.K.? What causes Tenchi to hold off a monster many many times larger? They don't do it for me. They don't fight for me. Have you ever seen their eyes, have you ever seen Winston cut down the guy whose about to strike Tenchi? Have you seen Dinobot when his sword goes through the enemy attacking Matt? Or Sage pulling out all the stops? Think, David, why would Piccolo replace himself with the dragonballs? And we have no idea where these guys go to when they 'die.' We might have sent Piccolo back to his world. But he sent the dragonballs so he could get back, to separate himself again, for the greater good. And Matt and the others willingly came back too. David, we owe it to them to do this right. We hit the inside."

"O.K. We'll play it your way."

Sage, Piccolo, and Wheeljack all knew what had passed between the general and von Moltke. Sage stared into the forest, wondering how they would break into the metal giant. Not easily, that's for sure. He searched his knowledge of Unicron, looking for a weakness. He had no luck this time. Wheeljack on the other hand knew the general had something in mind. That was good enough for him. Let Leon Churchill figure it out. Piccolo also wondered what John had in mind, but he said nothing of it. The pair was coming back from their conversation. Those who knew Churchill recognized the look on his face. He had an idea. "Circle round men, we have to plan our strategy," he said. Charmander, T.K., Patamon, Gabumon, Matt, Dinobot, Trowa, Quatre, Tenchi, Sage, Winston, Wheeljack, Salamander, Michelangelo, Piccolo, von Moltke, and Lita gathered around him. "Here's the plan. Piccolo you go high towards the eyes. You release a blast into the left eye. It shatters and you and a group follow the blast down. Once inside, look for the core station and destroy it. Then get out as quick as you can. Hopefully the blast will kill Unicron. Any questions?" Piccolo answered, "Yeah, why me? The other guys are going to fighting for their lives out here, don't you think you need me out here?" Leon pondered out loud, "Do we have anything that strong out here?"

Gabumon…warpdigivolve to…METALGARURUMON!

"Never mind, Matt, do you want the job?" Leon asked.

"I'll take it," Matt replied.

"I'll back him up," responded Michelangelo.

"Piccolo what kind of force do you need out here with you?" asked Leon.

"I'll need the Gundams, Dinobot, Wheeljack, and Tenchi for sure. And T.K. too," answered Piccolo.

"Then you've got them. Sage, Salamander, and Charmander, you're going with Matt and Metalgarurumon. Winston, Lita, David, and myself will remain out here with Piccolo. Now let's get this plan going. Metalgarurumon can carry Matt, Sage, and the two little guys. Patamon, could you airlift Michelangelo there as Angemon?" stated Leon.

"I think so," answered the little digimon.

"Good. Piccolo, I still want you to get them in, but leave them after that. O.K., that's the deal, then. We strike first, and look for an opportunity to send ya'll in. Got it? Good. Then let's move out!"

There was a slight pause as some things had to be done first. Piccolo, whose training clothes had reappeared somehow, now took them off and put them gently on the ground. He began to power up. As his power began to build, the others were forced to find something to hide behind as Piccolo continued to power up and the winds picked up, the ground began to shake and literally pieces were rising in the air. Metalgarurumon was forced to shield some people, while others found refuge behind the Gundams and Wheeljack. Piccolo had reached his highest peak. The yellow flame surrounded his figure and the earthworks stopped. There were others who had to do some things too…

ARMOR OF HALO…Tochei!

JUPITER STAR POWER!

DINOBOT…MAXIMIZE!

Patamon…digivolve to…ANGEMON!

The buck stopped here. And Unicron would stop here too.

Unicron noticed the commotion on the hilltop. He would kill them all. Nothing could get in his way of ruling the universe. This was his second chance after all. The confederation arrayed against him would fail and fail miserably. He looked at his small wounds picked up from the first day's fighting. There were only a couple of penetrations. He was tired of having to find them to defeat them. Piccolo's energy tipped him off. His opponents were a strange group, really, only two of their energy signatures said Transformer. He would have expected more. No others registered as androids, either. All seemed to be carbon based life forms. Unicron didn't care really. They were in his way. He would put them away. Only one thing worried him. Before when he had eliminated the boy, the boy had come back. He pushed it out of his mind. This time, he'd make it so the boy could not come back. He moved toward the energy flow. When he got there there was no one there. He looked around calmly. Then he heard the word, "ATTACK!"

A ferocious charge came upon Unicron. Sandrock, with its new capabilities, leaped into the air, and aimed right for the gut. Raising one heat shorter up and the other in front, he kept coming. All of the sudden both heat shorters went plunging into Unicron's metal skin. The sizzle of heat slicing through metal was audible. Unicron brought down his arms to smack the Gundam, but at the last second it escaped. Heavyarms went into the air and began to lay on a barrage. Unicron reached for the Gundam, but Heavyarms outmaneuvered the flailing hand. Quatre and Trowa both knew what they had to do. In their cockpits, their faces were gaunt and determined. This was for keeps. As Heavyarms skirted the hand, Dinobot moved in on the foot area. He fired his eye laser into Unicron's foot, and then began to use his sword to hack away at the foot. Unicron ceased chasing Heavyarms and turned on this new threat. He reached down to crush Dinobot when a beam struck one of his fingers and weakened it severely. Winston looked down the barrel of his proton gun to see if he had gotten the creature. Tenchi then leaped into the air and sliced the finger right off. The huge finger descended causing Michelangelo to have to have to dodge it. Beside him was Metalgarurumon with the rest of the guys who would soon try to enter Unicron. Unicron attempted to brush off Tenchi when…

HAND OF FATE!

Angemon's blast hit Unicron's arm, distracting him from Tenchi. Leon knew the time was soon. Wheeljack had risen into the air temporarily and fired his shoulder guns; the blast hit the shoulder of Unicron. Unicron was thoroughly annoyed. Churchill knew it was time. "Piccolo, now!"

The Super-Namek rose into air. Metalgarurumon followed. Angemon picked up Michelangelo and lifted him toward Piccolo. The Super-Namek raised his hands high. Dinobot and Winston started attacking Unicron's feet again. Unicron fired his eye laser at his feet causing the two to scatter. Piccolo gathered his energy.

MASENKO-HA!

The blast moved down into the eye. It pierced it and kept going. Metalgarurumon dove to follow and Angemon dropped Michelangelo into the breakthrough. Matt, now inside the huge machine watched the Masenko blast as it illuminated the dark interior. With this light, Matt saw the spikes and inner parts of Unicron. "Metalgarurumon, follow that blast until there is something to land on." The Masenko blast was getting a little away from them. Metalgarurumon kept up his dive and saw a solid surface below. He landed. Piccolo's blast continued down into the frame of Unicron. Then they heard a thump next to them. It was Michelangelo, who had not quite so gracefully landed beside them. "Ouch, that hurt," muttered the turtle as everyone got off of Metalgarurumon. Charmander's tail lit up the observable area, but it was a little dark. Sage looked around him, feeling for the center of operations. "This way," he pointed. The others followed. Coming around a bend down what seemed to be a hallway, Michelangelo just happened to turn around. "What the heck?"

Outside, things had changed. Von Moltke turned to Churchill, who seemed to be fatigued for some reason. "Things were going so well, what happened?" "We surprised him at first, he didn't have time to pull out his eye laser and acidic breath. Now that the surprise is over, he is finding his faculties again. It was to be expected, but best-case scenario now means Piccolo and Tenchi blocking those attacks, and I don't know how much they can block. If we attack all at once, then we should catch him off guard."

Churchill turned toward T.K. "T.K. get Angemon to attack now. Piccolo, watch for a counterattack. You too, Tenchi. Dinobot, Winston, Wheeljack, Trowa, Quatre, all attack with Angemon, you too Sailor Jupiter. Go!" Angemon struck right for the head with a hand of fate. Winston aimed for the knee with a proton gun blast; Dinobot fired an eye laser at the other leg. Heavyarms landed and placed a barrage right at Unicron's arm. Sandrock charged the rear, leaving indentations where his heat shorters had sliced. Wheeljack aimed a shoulder gun shot at the opposite arm from Trowa. Sailor Jupiter supported Dinobot's attack on the left leg. Acidic breath came from Unicron at Sailor Jupiter and Dinobot. Tenchi unleashed his shield and put it at full power to block this threat. Annoyed, Unicron sent an eye laser in the same direction; Piccolo produced a blast that blocked it away from the battlefield. Unicron realized that this attack was too organized to be chance; he looked for the culprit. As for now, he swung his arm, barely knocking Piccolo to the ground, he shrugged off Dinobot with his foot, sending the Maximal into the trees. He also flicked away Angemon. The Champion held, but he was a little winded. T.K. rushed over to give support. The others avoided Unicron's attempts to beat them into the ground. Tenchi gladly got out of the way of the acid breath, and it harmlessly hit some rock, and melted them to the ground. Piccolo and Angemon and Dinobot got up, ready to go at it again, but Unicron now held the initiative.

Michelangelo watched in horror as crab-like pinchers attached to cables came out of the wall after them. He pulled out his nunchuks and began to hold them off, but there were too many of them. The sounds of fighting quickly reached the rest of the group. They were astonished, but they quickly moved to help Michelangelo. Sage's sword found and cut off several of the cables. Salamander managed to slash through some with his claw. Charmander torched a few with his flamethrower. Metalgarurumon aimed his wolf snout attack to claim several more. But more kept right on coming, closer and closer. It was evident that they all could be stuck there if they stayed. Michelangelo kept fending off his, and Salamander's claw kept right on working. Sage realized that unless someone did something quick, they would go no farther. Their mission would fail and their friends outside might meet a grisly fate. He would have to buy sometime. In a war of attrition, the odds were not great for their survival. Sage took matters into his own hands…

THUNDERBALL…CUT!

The wave of green light wiped out all of the little pinchers in the area, and bought breathing space for the group. "Matt, take Metalgarurumon, Charmander, and Salamander and get out of here. Go find the objective. Michelangelo and I will hold off our little friends here. Go!" Matt and the two little ones mounted Metalgarurumon and took off away from the spot where they had met the pinchers. They kept looking for the operational control center.

Churchill collapsed. The bombardment had worked temporarily, but they needed to keep beating on Unicron. Churchill's collapse was sudden and unexpected. He retained consciousness, but his legs had no strength left in them. All this was a surprise to von Moltke beside him. "John, are you okay? What's wrong with you?" David's concern was evident, for till now, he had played along with the name game. "I'm fine. I'm just a little sore, that's all." Sailor Jupiter rushed over. T.K. and Winston began to come over that way too. The others tried to distract Unicron. "Sailor Jupiter, do you know what's wrong with him?" Sailor Jupiter shook her head, but she had a feeling that she knew. Winston was now over there. "General, I'm going to take your uniform jacket off to see if there is anything there. Just stay calm and don't move." Removal of the three-star jacket showed blood spots on the inner shirt. Winston removed that too. Then it was evident. The old wounds were still there. They had healed over, but the numerous scars showed where the tree had fallen on him. Winston gasped, "Good lord, how did he manage to function with this all the time?" Sailor Jupiter looked into the face of Churchill. "Why didn't you take a Sensu bean like the others?" "I thought we might need them later for others. I guess I underestimated my wounds." T.K. looked up, "Well, it doesn't look like Unicron has underestimated you." Unicron knew Churchill was the brain of the operation now. He moved to crush the fallen soldier with his foot. Sailor Jupiter moved in front and prepared her strongest attack. Winston moved to counterattack a different place, while David and T.K. attempted to drag Churchill out of the way. But the general was in too much pain to move.

Matt, Charmander, Salamander, and Metalgarurumon kept on the look out for anything that might suggest an operations center, or a brain. They presently came upon an acid pool. Over it was a conveyer apparatus. It appeared that the conveyers dropped objects into the acid where the acid would end it for them. It was a lousy way to die. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that for anyone. "I reckon this is the stomach," exclaimed Salamander. The battle beast had never spoken a word up till now. "I have to agree," replied Metalgarurumon, "Matt, if this is the stomach, don't you think we should try to look for the brain in his head?" "Good call, pal. It kind of stinks that that's where we got in from. Oh, well. Let's find this thing," said Matt. The group now had to look for a way back into the head cavity. But first they had some company.

Sailor Jupiter wasn't sure if she could stop the moving foot by herself or not. She doubted it, but if she didn't hold here, John's life could be counted in seconds. Down the huge foot came. There was no time to think of anything else, when a green blur pushed her out of the way. Piccolo charged up the biggest blast he could and fired. The foot was stalemated momentarily, but it soon began to work its way down. Tenchi unleashed the light-hawk wings and used the shield to help keep the foot back. Winston fired his proton gun against the knee of the moving foot. "Trowa, Quatre!" yelled Piccolo, "I could use a little help here!" Heavyarms began pounding on Unicron's backside. The bullets were actually close to piercing. Sandrock threw his heat shorters into the arm of Unicron. The searing heat was melting away his outer skin. Sandrock whipped out his beam submachine gun and aided Trowa in pelting the back with shots. Wheeljack pulled out a laser and three were striking Unicron in the back. Dinobot rushed to help Piccolo and Tenchi as they tried to save the general. The Maximal fired his eye laser into the foot of Unicron. Angemon directed a hand of fate near where Winston blasted at the knee. Von Moltke succeeded in getting Churchill out of harms way for the moment. Unicron's acid shot at his own foot dispersed Piccolo, Tenchi, and Dinobot. Sailor Jupiter got up and ran to where T.K. and David had moved Leon. Piccolo noticed the heat shorters stuck in Unicron's arm. All of the sudden he had an idea. "T.K., I'm going to charge up a big shot, but I'm going to need some time, can you help me out?"

Angemon…digivolve to…MAGNAANGEMON!

"Will that work Piccolo?"

"If he can hold him with the others, sure."

Magnaangemon looked over the battlefield. The Gundams were holding their own. Wheeljack was helping them while Dinobot and Tenchi were still recovering from the foot incident. Winston was charging his proton gun. T.K. motioned to him. Magnaangemon descended. "Is it possible for you to do something for the general?"

Magnaangemon stood over the commander.

MAGNA ANTIDOTE!

The vibrant color pattern went down. Leon felt better than he had ever felt before. He stood up. He reached down, feeling for his holster. He found it and fingered around for a weapon. He withdrew his weapon, and looked at it. There was a message on the back of it

You never know when you might need one of these- Gene Starwind. A caster. Huh. Wonder how it got here. Leon thought to himself that maybe he could make himself useful after all.

Sage slung his sword around, destroying the little pinchers and their cables. There were certainly a lot of them, and he never got an opportunity to rest. He looked to his rear. There, Michelangelo too was wading trough an ocean of pinchers. He slung his knunchuks left and right to keep them off. Sage watched the turtle while he attended to his own pinchers. Sage knew where his power came from. It was his spirit brought forth by his armor, but where did the turtle gather his strength from? Sage couldn't help but wonder where Michelangelo pulled his skills from because among the multitude the turtle fought on, taking his pinchers with him. Sage looked back to his front and swung away at three more pinchers. He needed a break. He raised his sword high for his attack.

THUNDERBALL…CUT!

The green wave mowed down those pinchers around it like a cleansing shower. Michelangelo watched as the green wall swept out the enemy pinchers. He could see down the passageway. He wondered about his partner, and at the power that his partner was able to evoke almost at will. Which was good. The ninja turtle was on his last legs, he couldn't really hold up much longer. But he'd keep trying. He had to, there was nothing left. All options had been removed from him. Pizza was nowhere in sight. A pincher peeked out of a wall. The rest bit was over; it was time to once again strike back for the others, the others, what was happening to the others?